Gilead beats Q3 estimates substantially, shares slide anyways

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Dive Brief:

Gilead reported Q3 2015 earnings on Tuesday evening of $4.6 billion, compared with $2.73 billion for the third quarter of last year—a 68% increase.

Likewise, revenue grew from $6.04 billion to $8.3 billion.

Analysts had forecast $7.8 billion in revenue, making this a substantial earnings beat.

Dive Insight:

Gilead has posted another stellar quarter, with $8.3 billion in revenue, of which $4.8 billion came from sales of hepatitis C flagships Sovaldi and Harvoni. Another positive data point: Gilead has raised full-year revenue forecasts from a range of $29 billion to $30 billion, to a range of $30 billion to $31 billion.

Though Gilead beat market estimates, the stock has been largely stable with no massive movements in either direction (in fact, it's down about 2% in Wednesday morning trading). Some industry observers believe this may be a result of investors itching for Gilead's "next big thing."

On that front, there are several big possibilities. First of all, Gilead has a massive amount of cash on hand, which has raised consistent speculation that the biotech giant is gearing up for a big buyout. Second, the firm has been working on a pangenotype hep C combo as a successor to Sovaldi/Harvoni through a variety of drug combos, and late-stage trials have been promising so far.